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The most unforgivable thing...

Ripsaw.

And forcing out a brilliant marketing director after the park's most successful season in recent times.

:)
 
Removing live entertainment from AT last year.

Then removal of Ripsaw/Submission with no replacements.

I don't care about the flume, I rarely went when it was warm enough to be worth riding anyway and there is still two water rides at the park, I think the replacement will have more year-round appeal.
 
With what happened though you could easily argue that the park would be in a far better position now if The Smiler had not been added as such a rushed major project.

:)
 
Rob said:
With what happened though you could easily argue that the park would be in a far better position now if The Smiler had not been added as such a rushed major project.

:)
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You could, but as it was clearly still very popular when it reopened last year, and will continue to be as we move further and further on from the incident, I'd say it'll still be considered a pro long term. Very few, if any, of the people who visited the park last year were put off riding it and I'd argue it was still the most popular ride amongst the GP last season.

Plus the fact the Smiler was rushed had nothing to do with the crash when you think about it. The attraction itself, despite its past, was blameless. That one's entirely on Merlin. Merlin have no place blaming any of their problems on The Smiler when all the crash did was shine an unforgiving light on their already existing gross inadequacies.
 
It would be interesting to see what was the most popular ride last season, it is always important to remember that queue length does not equal popularity. The Smiler's throughput was dire during 2016 thanks to 3 train operation, yet even with that the physical length of the queue was never actually that long (I never saw all of the queueline in the pit full for example, although accept it may have happened).

Anyway I'm just playing devils advocate to an extent, clearly The Smiler was a positive addition to the park.

:)
 
Cbeebies Land hurts my soul a little every time I see it. Maybe because Storybook Land and the Old Maccy's Farm was my childhood (rip singing barn). It was one of the few places in the park that still felt a little magical to me and now it's infested with yellow blobs.

Other than that, Ripsaw for sure.
 
For me it's the introduction of fastrack

- That such a wealth dependent divisive thing exists at all in the escapism of a theme park. Someone paying for one thing should not be to the direct detriment of everyone else in the way that fastrack is.
- That if it has to exist it is run in the most haphazard, unfair, thoughtless way.
- That they actively lie about queue times with a resulting increase in sales.
- That it encourages reduced operations, park hours and ride throughput.
- That the GP have fallen for their marketing so see it as a good thing, paying for the same thing twice without realising that if everyone stopped buying it the thing that they are paying to avoid (long slow queues) would not exist in the first place.
- That they've now become reliant on that for their profit instead of just offering a good day out at a reasonable price for everyone, so will likely never be able to come away from this business model.

Towers, on the whole, probably has the 'best' fastrack operation across the estate, but it is still pretty unforgivable in my eyes. It's the biggest thing that stops me enjoying a day out in a Merlin park if it is anything other than dead.
 
Allowing The Smiler accident to happen has to be the most unforgivable thing for me. The very minimum I expect from any park is ensuring safety. They cut corners in the training of technicians and put pressure on them to get rides back up with big red counting clocks and bonuses. This is totally unforgivable in my eyes.
 
pluk said:
For me it's the introduction of fastrack

- That such a wealth dependent divisive thing exists at all in the escapism of a theme park. Someone paying for one thing should not be to the direct detriment of everyone else in the way that fastrack is.
- That if it has to exist it is run in the most haphazard, unfair, thoughtless way.
- That they actively lie about queue times with a resulting increase in sales.
- That it encourages reduced operations, park hours and ride throughput.
- That the GP have fallen for their marketing so see it as a good thing, paying for the same thing twice without realising that if everyone stopped buying it the thing that they are paying to avoid (long slow queues) would not exist in the first place.
- That they've now become reliant on that for their profit instead of just offering a good day out at a reasonable price for everyone, so will likely never be able to come away from this business model.

Towers, on the whole, probably has the 'best' fastrack operation across the estate, but it is still pretty unforgivable in my eyes. It's the biggest thing that stops me enjoying a day out in a Merlin park if it is anything other than dead.
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That's not entirely Merlin, that is the majority of major theme parks across the world....!

(Although Merlin's implementation of it is far from ideal)

:)
 
If you think Fastrack is bad, try doing BPB on a busy day, and getting your seat stolen for the Grand National three rides in a row.
My top three...
3. The state of the car parks, and the fact that you have to get your tracking redone after using the Express parking,
2. Fastrack, even though I have resorted to using it a couple of times,
1. The lack of priority given to safety procedures that led to the Smiler crash, my faith in Alton Towers ended at that precise point, I now see it as a pile of coasters in a pretty valley, no more, no less. Damn shame after 30 years of great times in a place I loved.
 
1/ Closing, removing and mothballing rides such as Flume, Ripsaw, NST and Hex (in 2016)
2/ Downscaling entertainment, F&B offering and park hours to make the place more profitable
3/ Letting the park reach such a dilapidated state that a TLC is almost mandatory (and used as an excuse for more cuts) when such a scheme should've existed from day 1.
4/ The lack of non coasters and CBeebies land attractions. The last (operating) investment that wasn't the above was nine years ago.
5/ Reduction of age division and variety (see point 4).
 
rob666 said:
If you think Fastrack is bad, try doing BPB on a busy day, and getting your seat stolen for the Grand National three rides in a row.
Click to expand...

That's my one pet hate with BPB, it's so frustrating, especially on Nash! Other than that I think they're moving in a great direction, shame the same can't be said about Alton Towers.
 
They take an age to actually stop in the station, it stops three or four times before coming to a real stop...and if they dont get it right it takes about ten minutes to reset.
The speedypass system means users get in the train at the exit point, so if you are waiting for a front or back seat, the airgates open but you can't get on as someone is already in your seat...and it can happen multiple times.
...and AT86, check out the original post, it didn't say Merlin exclusively, and fastrack didn't really become a problem until Merlin started to cash in.
 
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